


The Red Princess

by HopeStoryteller



Series: Gleefully Voicing This Eulogy [8]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Characters Writing Fanfiction, Drama & Romance, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Harold They're Lesbians Meme, Romantic Comedy, Unreliable Narrator, this is Bretta what exactly did you expect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27735688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: Then came a cry, and a gleam of metal, and the monster fell. Standing there was her rescuer: horned mask of white, fluttering cloak of scarlet, threaded needle of silver. She was beautiful, and handsome, and everything all at once. Everything that the maiden’s White Savior and Grey Prince had not been, this handsome bug was.She was… the Red Princess.Or: local fic-writing bug is rescued from Certain Death by local princess-protector of what's left of Hallownest, and promptly starts writing fanfiction all over again. What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Bretta/Hornet (Hollow Knight)
Series: Gleefully Voicing This Eulogy [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028826
Comments: 72
Kudos: 110





	1. The Red Princess

The maiden felt she could go no further. Her antennae drooped with fear and exhaustion. Nevertheless, she ran. She ran for the true love that had not yet come. She ran from the terrors that lurked in the cliffs. She ran, and just as she thought she’d escaped, she tripped.

She had to get up. She had to keep going. But her legs wouldn’t work. All the maiden could do was stare, transfixed by the horror drawing ever closer, ready to eat her alive. She would never meet her life’s companion. Her only love, failure. She knew, with more certainty than she had ever known a thing before, that she would die here…

Then came a cry, and a gleam of metal, and the monster fell. Standing there was her rescuer: horned mask of white, fluttering cloak of scarlet, threaded needle of silver. She was beautiful, and handsome, and everything all at once. Everything that the maiden’s White Savior and Grey Prince had not been, this handsome bug was.

She was… the Red Princess. 

The red princess spoke of danger, and howling winds, and monsters so great and terrifying that the maiden, alone, would surely fall. But the maiden could only nod, and flush that same brilliant scarlet, and be happy that her true love had come to her just when she needed her most.

Her life had been over. Now, the maiden realized it had only just begun. Claw in claw, the maiden and her one true love returned to the village… together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it was a tiktik


	2. The Red Princess Returns

The maiden did not see her red princess again for a long time. It was so long, the maiden began to fear that perhaps she would never see her again. Perhaps her one true love had fallen prey to any one of the number of dangers beyond the kingdom’s borders, or even something within the forgotten kingdom itself.

She found herself staring down the well, searching that inky blackness of below for a flutter of a brilliant scarlet cloak. She saw nothing, at first, and returned home despondent, yet hopeful. Her red princess would return, someday. Someday soon.

No matter how long she had to wait for her red princess, she would wait forever in silence before returning to the Grey Prince. He was boring, pathetic, pitiful. The Red Princess was everything that the Grey Prince was not.

One day, she returned… but she was not alone. She brought with her a taller bug with a similar, white-horned mask, and a cracked nail, and a tattered cloak held close. She introduced them as her sibling, but the maiden hardly heard what she said next.

How could she, when her light, her love, her laughter had returned? The red princess had returned from the darkness, and rescued another! Truly, the depths of the red princess’s compassion had no end!

But the maiden could hardly move, hardly speak, so she didn’t. Instead, she smiled shyly, and when the red princess looked over, she waved… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holly: that bug won't stop staring at you
> 
> Hornet: oh yeah I saved her life a couple days ago, it happens
> 
> Holly: no, no, I think she likes you
> 
> Hornet: yes??????
> 
> Holly: as more than a friend.
> 
> Hornet: we're friends????????
> 
> Holly: *deep sigh*


	3. The Red Princess and the White Savior

The red princess was looking for someone. Another sibling, like her tall, quiet one, only shorter than them both. They would be wearing a small, horned mask of white, she said.

The maiden’s shell grew tight as she realized. She knew who the Red Princess meant! Her White Savior, revealed as beast by the Grey Prince, was in fact her Red Princess’s younger sibling! The maiden felt foolish for not seeing the resemblance at a glance. They both were, after all, simply beautiful.

But… was the White Savior not a horrible beast? The Grey Prince had said they were. The Grey Prince had said many things. The Grey Prince had said he loved the maiden, but in the end, he had cared more for his own bragging than the feelings of the maiden who loved him back, once.

The maiden resolved, then, to tell the Red Princess of them both: the White Savior and the Grey Prince. To ask her, once and for all, to settle this dispute. Was the White Savior truly a savior? Was the Grey Prince worth anything at all? She would find out if it was the last thing she did…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hornet _might_ kill a bitch


	4. The Red Princess and the Grey Prince

The maiden had been foolish. How could she have believed the Grey Prince’s lies? For that was what they were: lies, and nothing else. The White Savior had been blameless, perfect, and she had scorned them. She could not blame them for leaving, though she could not help but wish they would come back. Their sister and sibling missed them, and the maiden couldn’t help but selfishly wish to see them again, one final time…

But her Red Princess was here, now, and she wouldn’t stand for the Grey Prince or his lies. She challenged him to trial by combat, in the old graveyard outside their village. The Grey Prince accepted, but scoffed. What hope did a Red Princess have of defeating a Grey Prince?

The moment came. Their respective weapons were held at the ready. The Red Princess waited. The maiden held her breath. Finally, the moment came, and the Red Princess struck true. 

The Grey Prince left the village in disgrace, leaving over the same cliffs the maiden once had seen as her only option. She watched him leave, disgusted with the miserable little creature he had been revealed as. How foolish she had been, to think she had to leave her home, when everything she needed, everyone she needed, was right here?

The Red Princess came out, after a while, to check on her. They sat together for a time, staring out at the cliffs. No words were needed, but her Red Princess had many. She spoke of many things: of siblings, lost and found. Of parents, missed and unmissed. Of gods, great and terrible.

Through it all, the maiden could only think of how truly lucky she was. She had found the Red Princess, after all. More accurately, the Red Princess had found her, again. 

She would always find her...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cups hands around mouth* GAY


	5. The Red Princess and the White Knight

The Red Princess had departed the village once again to find her lost sibling. The maiden, of course, was left behind, for she could not fight and did not even bear a nail to her name. She was not left alone. There was the rest of the village, which did not seem so boring now that the Grey Prince was gone, and there was the Red Princess’s sibling, the… White Knight!

The White Knight was more talkative than the maiden originally assumed. She’d thought, at first, that they  _ couldn’t _ talk, and the Red Princess had seemed just as surprised as the maiden to hear them speak at all. That being said, they were still quiet compared to the maiden, and for the first hour did a lot of pacing about anxiously.

Sometime within the second hour, the White Knight took the maiden aside to ask, “Do you want to go after her?”

_ Her, _ of course, referred to the Red Princess herself. The maiden flushed visibly, but the White Knight was kind enough not to comment on it. 

“Of course,” the maiden said, “but I cannot fight.”

The White Knight stretched tall. Their hand found the handle of their  _ massive _ nail. “I can. I’m going. Do you wish to accompany me?”

“Of course,” the maiden said, quieter this time. Still, she did not move.

“We can find you a nail,” the White Knight replied at last. “There is not, really, much more to it than making sure the pointy end hits what is currently trying to kill you, and that you do not get hit in turn first.”

The maiden sincerely doubted that. Still, she nodded. She had faith in the skills of the White Knight. They were the Red Princess’s sibling, after all!

Besides, if she stayed behind, she would be left alone again.

And the maiden did  _ not _ like being alone.


	6. The Red Princess and the Fire Child

The White Knight found the maiden a discarded nail rather quickly. Teaching the maiden to  _ use _ said discarded nail was another thing entirely. The maiden had approximately three things she was good at in life, and using a nail was  _ clearly _ not going to be a fourth anytime soon.

But she did try, for the Red Princess. She at least managed to hold her nail in a way that could, feasibly, be intimidating, were it done by anyone but the maiden.

She left the actual fighting to the White Knight. They were  _ good. _ And why should the maiden ruin something that was already good? The White Knight would dispatch any lingering traces of the Infection with perhaps more ferocity than was necessary, then call for the maiden to come once it was safe.

The maiden was fine with being left alone, for a little while. But it seemed as if the White Knight’s periods of combat would get longer and longer, and at last the maiden could stand it no longer. She wandered off, with no intention at all of going far.

She went further than she intended. The quiet dark of the crossroads gave way to a horribly long shaft. A horribly long  _ elevator _ shaft, with… the elevator coming up.

The maiden held her nail at the ready. Whatever was coming up… she would not go down without a fight. Running did not even occur to her. She searched, frantically, for some small semblance of what the White Knight had said. Move your feet. Make sure the pointy end winds up in your foe, and do not let your foe’s pointy end wind up in  _ you. _

She realized, as the elevator came to a stop, that it wasn’t the elevator’s motion making the shaft shake at all.  _ She _ was shaking.

She was… terrified. So much so that when a flying blur of red and black shoots through the opening doors, the maiden lets out a terrified yell and ducks, cowering.

_ “What,” _ says a familiar voice, “have I told you about setting anything that doesn’t attack you first on fire?”

Behind her came a completely unashamed chirp, but the maiden paid it little mind. She stood, fearfully, and beheld the flying blur’s companion. The Red Princess was  _ here! _ She was  _ safe! _

The Red Princess finally looked at the maiden, really looked at her. Her mask tilts slightly as she asked, “What are  _ you _ doing  _ here?” _

“Um,” said the maiden.

In the end, the maiden did a whole lot of evasion and deflection and not a lot of actual explanation on her part. On the plus side, she heard  _ plenty _ about the flying blur, the Fire Child, as well as what had happened to the White Savior… or more accurately, the complete and utter  _ lack _ of information about the White Savior.

The Fire Child, presumably, had been traveling with the White Savior. Presumably, he knew everything about what had happened to them.

There was just one problem: the Fire Child could only communicate in chirps and clicks. He could not speak. The Red Princess only knew his name because she was familiar with his father… or, perhaps, the Fire Child himself?

Actually, upon returning to where the White Knight had left the maiden, it became abundantly clear that there were  _ two _ major problems. One, the Fire Child could not communicate due to a lack of verbal speech or hands to sign with.

Two, the Fire Child took one look at the White Knight and decided to set them on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grimmchild is here!
> 
> and Grimmchild knows who he likes, and who he doesn't like, and who he wants to set on fire. unfortunately Holly falls into the third category. they'll be fine. probably.


	7. The Red Princess and the Maiden

The Fire Child and the White Knight, by the time the group of four had reached the village again, had reached an uneasy truce. This came as a great relief to the Red Princess, who was sick and tired of the Fire Child attempting to set her sibling on fire when she wasn’t looking, and even  _ more _ sick and tired of the White Knight continuously attempting to throw the Fire Child into spike pits when she wasn’t looking.

This did not come as a relief to the maiden, for as soon as the Red Princess’s sibling and temporarily acquired child had settled down, the Red Princess turned on the maiden. She demanded to know what in all the  _ world _ had possessed her to wander off  _ again? _ She could have been  _ killed! _

The maiden looked down. She confessed, quietly, that she did not like being left alone. She had gone with the White Knight because without them, she would have been left alone again.

The Red Princess thought about this. She pointed out that she wouldn’t have been alone at all. Even with her and her sibling gone, there was still the village elder, and the shopkeeper, and the mapmaking couple. They all meant well, save perhaps the shopkeeper, who only meant well at any time that money was involved.

The maiden was ashamed to admit that she had completely forgotten about the others living in her little village. She vowed to reconnect with them, no matter what it took.

“It sounds,” said the Red Princess, “as if you do not need me at all, then.” She sounded almost sad.

“No,” the maiden said hastily. “No, no,  _ no. _ I need you. I really,  _ really _ need you. I…”

Her fists clenched. She whispered, so quietly that the Red Princess could not hope to hear, “I  _ love you.” _

The Red Princess certainly heard, for she stared at the maiden for several seconds. Her white mask made her true feelings inscrutable. The only sound that escaped her then was a small,  _ “Oh.” _

“I’m sorry,” the maiden whispered, even quieter this time. She curled up into herself and looked away.

“Do not be,” the Red Princess replied. She took the maiden’s claw in both of her own. She… had a firm grip. Strong. Powerful. “I must confess I am… taken aback. I did not expect a confession. I need some time to think about this.”

“Of course.” The maiden only curled into herself further.

“No, no, that’s not… what I suppose I am trying to say is…” The Red Princess sighed. “I will not say that I love you, because I do not yet. I barely know you! But I… would like to get to know you. And I would like to be able to say  _ I love you too.” _

“Oh,” the maiden said, for no other words could escape her mouth. Her heart leaped within her. Her heart positively  _ soared, _ for her Red Princess… was willing to give her a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> curious about some things that Bretta has no idea of the context behind? stay tuned for the next fic that *glances* I swear I'm working on. it's focused on Holly (or is it)
> 
> anyway *clears throat* they're lesbugians, Harold


End file.
